The Bro Bowl is one of the last remaining

skateboard park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert r ...

s of the 1970s and the first public skatepark to be built in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States. It is the first skatepark to be listed on any national registry of historic sites. Located at Perry Harvey Sr. Park in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, this facility opened in 1979. The Bro Bowl is a bank-style park more similar to the first generation skateparks of 1976-1977 rather than the late seventies parks which tended to focus on vert. What is also unusual about the Bro Bowl is that it was constructed as a free public skatepark during a time when most parks were private

profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory intere ...

-driven ventures. In 1998, the Bro Bowl was featured in the fourth Birdhouse video, ''The End'', starring

Thrasher Magazine ''Thrasher'' is a skateboarding magazine founded in January 1981 by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello. The publication consists primarily of skateboard- and music-related articles, photography, interviews and skatepark reviews. The magazine also ...

's pro skateboarder of the year, Andrew Reynolds. In 2010 the Bro Bowl became the subject of a documentary titled “The Bro Bowl: 30 Years of Tampa Concrete." The Bro Bowl takes its name from its proximity to the city of Tampa's

projects A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

. In the early years it was common to hear skaters refer to the bowl as the place where the

brothers A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

riot. Over the years the press and even the mayor of Tampa have lost track of the history of the park and openly refer to the park by its colorful name. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2013 as the Perry Harvey Sr. Park Skateboard Bowl. It is apparently the first skatepark, world-wide, to be recognized on a national historic registry.

The Rom The Rom is a Grade II listed skatepark in Hornchurch, East London, England. Built in 1978, and designed by Adrian Rolt of G-Force, it is the most completely preserved purpose-built skatepark in England. It is the first skatepark in Europe to ac ...

, built in 1978 in east London, England, was the second; it became

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 2014. The original skatepark was demolished as part of a renovation of Perry Harvey Sr. Park and replaced with an updated design heavily inspired by the original.

References

External links

Official website

Florida Historical Marker

Visible on Google Street View 2015
Skateparks in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Tampa, Florida 1979 establishments in Florida Sports venues completed in 1979 Sports venues in Tampa, Florida {{Skateboarding-stub